Neck Reining, Riding from the Seat, and a Spontaneous Round Pen Drag

One of my assistant’s goals is to cowgirl.  Western saddle, Western reins, Western riding….less leg, leg, leg and more go, go, go…this is all great, because it allows me to refamiliarize myself with the Western riding lessons that I took with Ted Valentiner when I was in Saudi.   I also think that cross training a horses raises their value considerably – that the lessons they learn from one discipline to the next, if they are capable of this kind of learning, can help the horse do better in the other discipline.   The reasoning?  Well, my theory is that Western riding reflects a totally different mindset…the cowboy mindset, and that the disciplines are complementary if one looks at them a little closer.

A laidback, go with the flow, tobacco chewing, stealth…kinetic energy - ready at a moment’s notice to jump into high gear to catch the bad guy, rope that runaway steer, or chase after the damsel who ran away from love,  Western riding conjures up archetypes of independence, lonliness, a go-get-em attitude, of fast riding across long plains, and rider and horse sharing an endless journey…and truth be told, Western riding is fun.  Can I say that too much?  If you and your horse are stagnant, in a rut, and bored out of your head for lack of new things to do…won’t hurt to give it a try.

So, here I have a student who wants to ride Western, and a horse who knows English, and may know Western.  Buddy holds his cards close.  He’s letting us teach him to ride Western.  The joke will be on us when we put him in front of the barrels or the poles and he already knows how to ride it…it could happen, I wouldn’t put it past him.

Some of the differences between Western riding and English riding, end up being similarities.

Leg, leg, leg aka riding every stride – Ask a classical dressage person how to ride with an invisible leg?  The answer – don’t use it, ride from the seat.  The more a dressage rider advances the LESS the rider relies on the leg aid.  I am not talking about a pushing seat, or absent legs…I am talking about a delicate, deep seat that moves with the horse, and gives aids with gentle changes in movement, pressure, position, and resistance.  I am talking about legs that block, brace, support, or move at the most subtle level.

An advanced, well balanced Western rider moves her horse in the same way…the steps to get there are different, but not mutually exclusive.  The difference is in the cues, and the expectation the rider has of the horse – in English/Classical riding, the horses are taught to go to ride every stride…in Western riding the horse is taught to go forward at the leg aid, and keep going until a change of gait or halt is cued.

In order to move Buddy out of the ride every stride expectation, and into the go forward until cued to do something else, we worked him in the round pen, on the lungline and with a bridle, and Leanne in the saddle.  She gave the leg cue, and I backed it up if neccessary.  This kept a whip out of her hand, which she hates even more than I do, and  kept she and I working together.   Buddy transitioned up to trot and back, holding the gait until she brought him back down – she said he sometimes slowed at the walk if she stopped moving with him.  Lessons learned by both horse and girl.

The other big difference, which really isn’t as huge as one might think upon closer inspection of good, nice-to-the horse riding.  Neck reining versus direct reining.  Most Western horses learn to neck rein by extrapolating from a direct rein.  I did even come across a passage that referred to neck rein backing up high school dressage movements, but I have been unable to refind the passage – so if anyone knows where that can be found, I’d appreciate your dropping a comment with it.  How it works is this – The horse is taught to give to pressure.  The horse learns to give to the direct rein.  The neck rein aid is given at the same time as the direct rein.  Over time the direct rein becomes less and less until non-existent and the horse now neck reins.  There may be other ways to teach this…this is the one I use.

Horses like to neck rein because it is a way of communicating direction without riding between leg and hand.  The horse probably prefers neck reining, I don’t know for sure.  So, if the horse knows how to neck rein, and knows how to keep going from a leg cue followed by seat movement, then the horse and rider can go out and have a bit of a romp, basically off the bit.  This can be a lot of fun. 

What this adds to the horse’s training:  A horse who relies LESS on the leg due to riding from the seat, can take more and more subtle aids in English/Classical riding.  A horse who learns to balance his own head from centered riding, and LESS communication from the bit will be able have better balance and response on the bit.  Also, an observant rider can learn a lot about the horse’s natural collection and balance by riding the three gaits on the loose rein, Western style.

So, the lesson went well – Buddy trotted up with some actual verve, taking my assistant by surprise.  They made progress in the overall goals, and best of all, my assistant beamed!  However, no day is perfect without a semi-sour note.  The stirrup caught on the gate of the round pen on the way out, right as I put my hand on Buddy, and the combination sent him forward, dragging the gate panel, and four other panels until the billet ripped.  I helpfully cried out because I was almost through the gate when it started moving and the panels were converging on me.  My assistant kept her cool, however, and kept Buddy in hand. 

Buddy was fine, he just startled a few steps…what a mess a draft horse can have on a round pen.  The door panel went from rectangular to pentangular, and it warped cross wise also.  The whole thing was easily repaired with teeter-totting the warp, and a combination of sheer brute strength, bouncing, and a clamp.  Oh yes, and some duct tape!  It did take time to remove the door panel, fix it, and drag all five panels back into place, but it works.  Fixing the saddle will take just a little effort.

Note: Leanne updated her blog, too.  Read it here.